When he lived in Nova Scotia, Jeffrey from Montreal, Canada, noted that the word some was often used as an intensifier, as in That’s some good or She’s some pretty or She’s right some pretty. Also common in the dialects of Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland is the pulmonic ingressive, a sharp intake of air to indicate agreement or approval. This linguistic feature is heard in many parts of the world, including Maine. With reference to Mainers, it’s usually represented in writing as Ayup! Two helpful references: Sandra Clarke’s Newfoundland and Labrador English (Bookshop|Amazon) and From Clerks to Corpora (Bookshop|Amazon), a collection of essays on linguistics. This is part of a complete episode.
A Winter Dictionary (Bookshop|Amazon) by Paul Anthony Jones includes some words to lift your spirits. The verb whicken involves the lengthening of days in springtime, a variant of quicken, meaning “come to life.” Another word, breard, is...
Rosalind from Montgomery, Alabama, says her mother used to scold her for acting like a starnadle fool. The more common version of this term is starnated fool, a term that appears particular to Black English, and appears in the work of such writers...
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